I ventured down to the Bowery Ballroom last night to check out the youngsters in Be Your Own Pet. Thurston Moore’s favorite kiddies have been riding the hype-wave full steam ahead this past year on the back of their stellar self-titled record. They were playing a larger venue then the last time they were in town, which was in June at the Knitting Factory. This was obviously suppose to be a pretty big show for the band; Timing-wise and due to the fact that they are road-testing their new 16-year old drummer. Yes, the kid is 16. I can’t even remember what I was doing when I was that age but it certainly was not playing in an uber-hyped band and hanging with beer guzzling hooligans and record industry elitists.

I got there just as the band Black Lips was finishing up their set. From what I heard, the band’s psychadelic-rock and roll was pretty well executed. I know they are a bit bigger in the Brooklyn scene so I would assume their fan-base was waiting for the show tonight to get down on it.

In an odd scene, during the band’s last song, some dude (who I later found out was some French guy named Piero) hopped on stage, did some weird jig and apparently pissed off the security guard royally. I couldn’t see if he did something that warranted the move but two security guards pounced on the guy and dragged him out of the club. He didn’t go out without a fight though and on the way out, managed to either kick/grab/punch the fire extinguisher. I thought at first that the dude threw a smoke bomb because in a matter of seconds, the club and patrons were overcome with a thick fog of smoke. I asked David Fricke from Rolling Stone what happened and he was just as bewildered as I. I thought it was one of BYOP’s young groupies because during the band’s final song at the Knit, hoardes of thumbsuckers hopped on stage to do their weird, seizure-inducing gyrations. Apparently the guy is a friend of the bands and had a bit much to drink.

Security fought their way through the cloud and announced that the show was “over.” It was one of the most surreal moments I have ever witnessed at a show. No word if BYOP actually played last night but as I was leaving, the stage was still set up.

Check out Eric Davidson’s take on the show here http://www.cmj.com/relay/?p=1099

Tags: Be Your Own Pet, show review by Matthew
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Luckily I live in NYC so cool movies are screened here first before it hits the rest of the country. Last Saturday I saw the amazing music documentary American Hardcore, based on the Steven Blush book, and was totally blown away.

I’ve owned the book for a couple of years now and it was so hard to sit through because even though it claimed to be a oral history book Blush’s annoying commentary kept popping up throughout the chapters. Anyway, I was hoping that the movie would be much better than the book’s material and it definitely was.

The two hour movie touched on the hardcore scene, from 1980 - 1986, in different regions throughout the country - not just LA, DC, and NYC. The story is told through respected figures from the genre including everyone from Keith Morris to Dave Dictor and unseemingly Moby who still claims he was a singer for Flipper.

There was a bunch of funny and interesting commentary. The thing that sticks out the most to me, which isn’t really supposed to be funny, is when John Joseph of the Cro Mags starts talking about how tough NYC hardcore kids were. He said to him it wasn’t a game and that he slept with a pit bull on his chest and had chains around his door. He started talking about how suburban and lame native DC kids were in comparison and thats when I thought it got funny, because we are.

The film has tons and tons of great footage like the video below:

There are always going to be people that are going to complain about the lack of coverage of certain bands or scenes but its impossible to get to everyone. However, me and a couple of my friends thought it was weird that Husker Du and Dead Kennedys, just to name a few, weren’t really talked about at all. Especially since Biafra loves to talk you think he’d have a 15 minute section devoted to him just talking about DK…and then the green party.

Regardless, I can’t wait until it comes out on dvd because its definitely an essential for anyone thats into punk or hardcore.

www.americanhardcorefilm.com

Tags: News by Matthew
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So how are the plans coming along for the new album?
We’re trying to book it. We want to book studio time for March or April and we’ll try to do the full-length then. We have this tour (with Strike Anywhere), then we have a month off to write and then we have a tour with Converge and Some Girls in November. The rest of the way we’re just going to devote to writing songs and working on the new record. We’ll record in the spring and it’ll be out by next summer, hopefully.

How many songs do you have guys have so far?
We have five right now. We played one new one tonight. The lyrics, (I am) still working them out. I have two of them down solid and the other three are still in the works.

Are you guys going to work with Kurt (Ballou-producer of Witness and Converge Guitarist) again?
We’re not sure yet.

Are you guys going to work with Deathwish again?
We don’t know about yet either. We had a one record deal with Deathwish for Witness. So, we’re not sure. Everything’s up in the air right now.

[Read more →]

Tags: Interview, Modern Life Is War by Matthew
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Words cannot describe how amazing this band is. I think it’s fairly safe to say that they just may be one of the best and most engaging live acts around today. Man Man’s music may take the better parts of Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits but I imagine a far more developed creature when I think of them. The Philly-based weirdos have created one of the years best albums with Six Demon Bag (Ace Fu) and just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger with each passing month. The mere fact that the band refuses to stop playing for one second during their hour long sets is an accomplishment in itself. It’s fun, it’s sweaty, it’s weird, it’s unpredictable, they play with spoons…what else could you ask for?! A part of me wants to write about this band over and over again (and I probably will when I have more focus) but seriously go see this band. Even if you hear the record and go “what the fuck is this!” GO SEE THE BAND. They will twist your god damn head.

For some amazing pictures, check out http://www.cmj.com/relay/?cat=22

Tags: Man Man, show review by Matthew
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Cheers to: Sludge metal, smoke machines, screaming drummers, drink tickets, bass and guitar combos, ear plugs, Japanese super fans, improvisation, unpredictability.

Jeers to: Tired feet, shitty opening bands, sweaty packed rooms, missing Joe Lally, hipster metal.

And that’s all I have to say about that one…

Tags: Boris, show review by Matthew
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